Trolley mechanism for railway-cars.



C. KASPAR.

TROLLEY MECH'ANISM FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED IuIY II, |914.

1 1 19, 6 5 1 f Patent-ed Aug. V10, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

V I V .IIIIIIIII\\I\ Il. m Y

CDLLIMBIA PLANOGRAPH CO..WASHINGTON. D. c.

C. KASPAR.

TROLLEY IVIECHANISM FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 1I, 1914.

Patented Aug. 10, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

coLuMBlA PLANOURAPH co., WASHINGTON. D. c.

CARL KASPAR, 0F CHICAGQILLINOIS.

TROLLEY MECHANISM FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

Specicaton of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 10, 1915.

' i Application filed July 11, 1914. Serial No. 850,493.

To all whom t may conce/m Be it known that I, CARL KASPAR, a subject' of the Emperor' of Austria-Hungary, residing in Chicago, in .the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and Auseful Improvements in Trolley Mechanisms for Railway-Cars, of ywhich the following is a specification.

My invention relates to 4,trolley mechanisms for cars operated on electric railways, and particularly concerns a novel and im'- proved mechanism for operating and controllingthe trolley wheel carrier, and adapted to facilitate the finding of the wire by the motorman or yconductor from either end of the car.

Although a number of so-called finders have been proposed and operated to some extent, they have never found much favor with practical electric railway men, since they have been either too complicated, or. faulty in construction, or so limited 1n capacity as to be of little practical value.

Among the salient objects of my present invention are, to provide a trolley7 mechanism that shall be capable of being operated by the motorman or conductorl from either end of the car without the necessity of leaving 'he car; to provide a trolley'apparatus in which the operator shall have absolute control of `the trolley-wheel carrier and ivheel. duringboth vertical and llateral moviements of the latter so as to enable huny readily to guide the wheel directly` into contact with the wire; to provide improved trolley mechanism in which the vertical and lateral movements of the trolley-wheel carrier may occur ywithout any interference withy or hindrance from the operating mechanism of the said carrier; to provide a mechanism wherein thev trolley-wheel carrier may be readily drawn down and locked in loweredposition whenever desired, for instance, when the car is to be sent into the barns; to provide a trolley mechanism which will obviate'the slipping of the trolley-wheel off the wire and will insure its remaining in continuous contact with the wire regardless of the speed of the car or of the curvature and unevcnness of the track or trolley wire; to provide` an improved trolley-mechanism of the class referred to which shall be comparatively simple and economical in conimproved trolley mechanism of the class referred to.

My invention consists in the matters hereinafter described and more vparticularly pointed out in connection with the accompanying drawings in which I have illustrated one practical form of my invention,y

and in which- Figure 1 is yan end elevation of my irn-` proved trolley mechanism, showing certain parts in section; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Fig. l, showing certainparts of the car in section; Fig. 3 isa longitudinal section of the central gear box and associated parts; Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view of one of the parts shown in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a detail view, showing the means employed at the end of the car, certain parts being broken away for operating the trolley-carrier, and Fig. 6 is a section through one 'of the handwheel mechanisms employed' for raising and lowering the trolley. f'

Referring to the drawings, it will be seen that the trolley-carrier as a whole is', of the modified pantographl type. The trolleywheel 8 is carried by a pivot which connects a pair of longitudinally extending armsl 9,`

which latter are pivoted to the outer ends of a pair of arms 10.` These latter arms 10 are pivotally connected to the upper ends of a pair of short. sleeves 11, which' latter are loosely mounted upon shafts 12 and lsupported in bearings 14Jforming the gear case"Vv Y 15. VIt will thus be manifest thatthe pa'rjntograph construction composed ofthe arms 9 L and 10 ywill thus be permitted to partake of connections of said arms 9 and 10, andfalso will accommodate itself to transverse move- 9o a vertical, movement owing to the pivotal',

ment around the axes of the shafts ,12 and 13, 'due to the rotatable connectionfof the sleeves 11 upon which the arms 10 aremounted. Intermediate of the lengthsA of the arms 10 I pivotally connect to each of the said arms a pair of laterally extending arms 16k,y

each'vpair of arms being alsopivotally con-f nected to the opposite pair of'arms bylpivot joint connections carriedl by the swinging traction or extension controls the distance j of the trolley-wheel 8k from the top ofthe.A car. It is also apparent that if the two 'arms through the disk and riveted over into a washer 63 which thus prevents thek cam-bar 59 from dropping out of the groove 56. The hole through which the neck62 extends is suitably slotted, as shown at 64, in order to permitI the requisite endwise movement of the cam-bar 59. Mounted upon the upper face of the disk 53 is a spring-pressed mem ber 65which is slotted, as shown at 66, in order to be capable of endwise movement with respect to the shaft 50 and has a longitudinal extension v67 also slotted to permit the same amount of relative endwisev movement with reference to a pin or lug 168 depending from the bearing 52.vk In the lower face of this member 65 there are set a .pair of pins 69 and 70, thesepins being slightly longer than the depth ofthe spiral grooves 54 and 55. 1t isr thus apparent thaty when the crank disk 53 is in such position thatthe two pins 69 and 70- occupy the position shown, they extend through into the diametral slot 56 and prevent lmovement of the disk 53 with reference to the locking member 65, which latter member is prevented from rotating by the lug 68 entering the slot in its extension 67. Referring to Fig. 6, it will be seen that the cam-bar 59 has two pairs of upwardly extending cam projections 71 and 72 which lie inthe deep grooves 57 and 58. The beveled `edges of these cam projections are adapted to lift the ends of the pins 69 and 70 out of grooves 57 andy 58 against the pressure of the spring 73 when the handle 61 is pulled outwardly against the tension of the spring 60; and having lifted the pins out of the said' grooves, it is then possible for the operator to rotate the disk as a wholeby means of its handle 61 in the direction which will cause the pins 69 and 70 to travel' along the grooves 54 and 55. It should be noted that the operator simply gives an initial Aoutward pull upon the handle 61 in order to unlock the disk, and afterward, while rotating the disk uponthe handle, he permits the spring 60to pull the cam-bar back into its original position, as shown. When the cam disk has made a complete revolution, the pins 69 and 70 are then again above the deep grooves 57 and 58, but since the cam-bar has -been restoredto its original position by the spring 60, the cam projections 71 and 72 prevent the said pins from entering the grooves 57 and 58 and consequently the rotation of the crank disk is not interrupted. However, as soon as the crank disk has made arpa-ir of complete revolutions, the pins 69 and 70 strike the ends of the spiral grooves 54 and 55, .while at the same time they enter the grooves 57 and 58 since there is no obstruction to their entering when they are at the ends of said spiral grooves 54 and 55.

The mechanism just described results in the effective locking of the crank disk 53 when it hasbeen placed inthe desired posi-l tion, while at the same time it permits of the crank disk vbeing rotated for two and only two complete revolutions. It may be mentioned here that the purpose of revolving the crank disk 53 `an amount equal to two revolutions is, either to pull down the trolley into its inactive position adjacent the roof of the car, or, if the trolley-wheel be in this inactive position, to provide sufficient freedom in the gear mechanism to allow the wheel to assume its position of maximum vertical height.

The lowering and raising of the trolley, due to the revolving' of the crank disk 53, is accomplished as follows. Gbviously, when the crank disk is revolved, theshaft 50 rotates the shaft 46 through the miter gears 48 and 49 and the shaft 46 transfers this rotary movement to the shaft 13 through the bevel gears 45 and 43. As the shaft 13 rotates, the worm screw 35, beingsplined to it, also'rotates and moves in a longitudinal direction upon the-shaft. `We will now assume that the trolley-wheel is in operation upon the wire and vthat it is desired to lower the pantograph until the trolley-wheel is adjacent the roof of the car .and thus inactive. The position in which the trolley is opera tive corresponds with the position of the gear mechanism shown in Fig. 3. Assuming now that the members 35 and 34. are threaded in a right-hand direction, if'the shaft 13 be turned in the direction ofthe aro row the member 35 will be screwed into the member 34 and finally its flange will strike the end face of the member 3.4", and the two members will thus -be locked. together and will rotate in unison with the shaft 13. The rotation of the member34 thus effected, will operate the racky bar 39 in an outwardly di-fV rection and the toothed sector member 40 will revolve in the direction ofthe arrow. As soon as the bevel gear 33 commences -to rotate,it willv obviously rotate the bevel pinion 31 since the latter is prevented from rotating around the shafts 12 and 13 by the pin 24. kThe rotation ofthe bevel pinion 31` results, in a corresponding rotation of the bevel gear 32 with which it meshes, and the rotation of this bevel gear 32 will obviously be in a direction opposite to that of the rotation of the bevel gear 33. l This `results in a movement of the rack bar 38 in a direction contrary to the direction of movement of the rack bar 39, and thus the said rack bar 38 will also move in an outwardly direc-k tion and rotate the toothed sector member 41 in the direction shown by thevarrow in Fig. 1. Thusthe two levers 17 and 18 will be depressed and the horizontal pantograph formed by the members 16 will ob-viously be y squeezed out longitudinally o f the length of thek carfand` thiswill thus result in a corre- .gzv i 1,149,651.

sponding lowering of the vertical pantograph and the trolley-'wheel carried at its apex. The ratio of the gearing between thesector members, the racks, the bevel gears 32 and 33, the pitch of the threads of the members 34 and 34, and the ratio of the bevel gears at the ends of the cars are all such that when the crank disk 53 is rotated an amount equal to two revolutions, the trolley-wheel is lowered a distance'equal to the difference in height between the maximum extension of the vertical pantograph and its lowest position. It will be noted that this lowering of the pantograph may be effected from either end of the car, since when onek shaft is operated the other is locked byk means of its associated crank disk at the other end of the car. This may be explained as follows: When the shaft 13 rotates and screws the two members 34 and 35 into locked engagement and then turns the gears 32 and 33, the gear 32 turns. in a direction to unscrew the members 34 and 36 and thus the gap 74; between their adjacent faces,is widened out. It is of course understood that the length of active thread on the membersk although it is possible to lower the trolley from either end of the car, it is impossiblel to restore the trolley to its active position unless both of the crank disks 53 be turned into the proper position.

Describing now the mechanism employed to enable the conductoror the motorman to find the trolley-wheel with-the trolley in case the latter has become displaced for any reason, referring to Figs. 2 and 5, it willbe seen that on theextreme outer' end of the shaft 13 there is located an end collar 75 which has rotary engagement with a groove 76 in the end of the said shaft 13, the said groove also preventing relative endwise movement of the collar 75 and the shaft 13. On the outer end of the collar 75 there is a lug 7 7 with which is pivotally connected a bar 78, the latter being also pivotally connected to a vertically upstandingv lever 79. vThe lever 79 ismounted upona pivot shaft 80 fixed to the car roof, and upon the other end of the said pivot shaft 80 is keyed a depending lever provided with a sector arm 81. Loosely mounted upon the shaft 8O and embracing said sector arm'81 swings a handlever 82, and carried by the side of said lever in a convenient manneris a longitudinally extendinglock-rod 83 operated by the handgrip 84. The end of this lock-rod 83 is adapted to enter a notch 85 in the edge of the sector arm 81 when the said lever 83 is brought down into the proper position.)

Normally, however, the isaid lever 83 Ais maintained in the position shown with lockrod out of engagement with the notch 85 by means of a spring-fork 86 which is secured to the end of the car.

Ve will now assume that the trolley has become unshipped from the wire, due to some inequality in the track or some defect in the trolley wire itself, and it is desired to restore the wheel into engagement with the trolley wire. As previously described,either of the crank disks 53 may be turned in order to bring the trolley wheel down below the level of the wire, and if the trolley wire were found to be directly above the wheel after the wheel was lowered, nothing further would have to be done but simply to again restore the crank disk 53 to its original position and the trolley would rise and resume its contact with the wire. However, in this case we will assume that the trolley-wheel is found to be at one side or the other of the wire and consequently cannot be engaged by simply causing the trolley-wheel to rise upwardly. In this case either the conductor or the motorman at either end of the car pulls the hand-lever 82 out of its fork 86 and then engages the lock-rod 83 with the notch 85, and he is then able to rock the pivot shaft 80 and thus move the shaft 13 longitudinally of its axis, without, however, rotating the latter. This longitudinal movement of the shafts 12 and 13 results in a sidewise movement vof the trolley-wheel, which is accomplished in the following manner. Referring to Fig. 3, it will be remem- `rbered that the pin 24 slides longitudinally in the guideway 26 in the fixedy bracket 27, and interposed between the-member 23 and the said bracket 27 is the slotted sleeve which carries thel bevel pinion 31.` Tt is thus apparent that a longitudinal movement of the pin 24; will causethe said pin to operate cam fashion upon the slot in the said sleeve 25 and will cause apartial bodily rotation of the latter around the ends of the shafts 12 and 13. This bodily rotation of the bevel wheel 31 around the ends of the shafts 12 and 13 effects a change in the relative heights of theA ends 19 of the levers 17 and 18 in the following manner. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the two sides of the pantograph movement are subject to the same amount of frictional resistance against the movement of the various parts, it is obvious that no rotation of the bevel gear 31 will be effected by its bodily rotation around the said shafts, but, on the other hand, both of the bevel wheels 32 and 33, which are in mesh with said bevel pinion 31, will each rotate an amount equal to the bodily displacement of the bevel gear 31 around the axis of the main shafts. Thus both of the rack-bars 38 and 39 will be moved in the saine direction, and this will result in the lowering of one of the pivots 19 and a corresponding elevation of the other of said pivots. As is manifest from an inspection of Fig. 1, a difference in the elevation of the pivots 19 will result in the displacement of the vertical pantograph from its vertical position and it will pivot upon the shafts 12 and 13, causing the wheel 8 to be moved from its vertical position.

It should be understood that it is not necessary that the two bevel gears 32 and 33 should move in unison, because,if one of them is subject to more friction than the other, this will result in the rotation of the bevel pinion 31 and the other bevel gear will rotate an amount equal to twice the bodily rotation of the bevel pinion 31 around the axes of the main shafts. So that the result will be the same,since, although one of the pivots 19 remains stationary7 the other one is raised or depressed a double amount and the same effect is obtained as if both of the bevel gears 32 and 33 were rotated when the bevel pinion 31 was moved bodily around the axis of the main shaft.

After the, trolley-wheel S has been displaced sidewise sufficiently to locate it beneath the trolley wire, the crank disk 53 which has been operated is then turned to its normal position which allows the trolley-wheel to rise and make contact with the wire. After the trolley-wheel has been reshipped in the above described manner, the lever 82 is disconnected from the sector 81 by withdrawing the lock-rod 83, and the lever is then pushed back into engagement with its retaining fork 86 and the operation is complete.

It should be understood that under ordi-` nary conditions, while the car isrunning, a displacement of the trolley-wheel relatively to the center of the track, which of course results in a swaying of the vertical pantograph carrying the trolley-wheel, also results in a slight endwise movement of the shafts 12 and 13 caused by a reversal of the cycle of movements previously described in connection with the displacement of the trolley to ship the latter in contact with trolley wire which is at one side of the cenn ter of the track. 1n other words, as the vertical pantograph sways from side to side when the car is running, the bevel gears 32 and 33 will be correspondingly oscillated by the rack-bars 39 and 38 and the movement of the said bevel gears 32 and 33 will result in a corresponding bodily rotation of the bevel gear 31 around the axes of the main shafts, this movement also resulting in a longitudinal movement of the pin 24, due to its cam action in the groove 28. Thus, as the trolley sways from side to side the shafts 12 and 13 reciprocate slightly longitudinally of the car and cause a slight rocking of the sectors 81 on their pivots. However, this movement is'in practice extremely limited and does not result in any undue wear or other bad eifects. t

1t will be manifest to those skilled in the art that the described mechanism may otherwise be modified in respect to details without involving any departure from the principles involved or sacrificing any of ythe benelits and advantages of the invention. Hence, I do not limit the latter to the particular mechanism disclosed, except tothe extent clearly indicated in specific claims. f I claim- 1. The combinationv of a car4 body, a trolley-wheel, a normally vertically extensible pantograph supporting said trolleywheel and supported by said car body," and a normally horizontally extensible pantograph connected to said vertical pantograph and adapted to contractor extend the'same: 2. The combination of a car body, a trolley-wheel, a normally verticallyextensible pantograph supporting said trolleywheel and supported by said cark body, a normally f horizontally extensible pantograph connected to said vertical pantograph and adapted to contract or extend the same, and means for inclining said horizontal pantograph to effect an inclination of said vertical pantograph.

3. The'combination of a car body, a trolleywheel, ya longitudinally extending pantograph normally vertical andr adapted to support said wheel and supported on said cany body, a normally horizontal pantograph connected at two of its corners to adjacent arms of said vertical pantograph, means for laterally displacing the center of' said horizontal pantograph to effect an inclination of said vertical pantograph, and automatic means for extending said pantograph inra vertical direction to raise said wheel.

v1-. The combination of a car body, aj trolley-wheel, a pantographv extending lon-k gitudinally of said car body and supporting said wheel and supportedAv by said carl.

body, said pantographbeing vertically'extensible and bodily pivoted upon an axis parallel with the direction of motion of saidI car, a normally horizontal pantograph connected at two of its opposite corners to adjacent arms of said vertical pantograph, pivoted arms mounted on said car body and pivotally connected to the other two corners v of said horizontal pantograph, and automatic means adapted to elevate said arms.

5. The combination of a car body, a trolley-wheel, a pantograph extending longitudinally of said car body and supporting said wheel and supported by said car body, said pantograph being vertically extensible and bodily pivoted upon an axis parallel with the direction of motion of said car, a normally horizontal pantograph connected at two of its opposite corners to adido iio

jaoent .arms of said vertical pantograph, pivoted arms mounted on said car body and pivotally connected to the other two corners of said horizontal pantograph, and manually controlled means for raising said arms a different amount,

56. The combination of a car body, a trolley-wheel, a pantograph extending longitudinally of said car body and supporting said Wheel and supported by said car body, said pantograph being vertically eXtensible and bodily pivoted upon an aXis parallel With the direction of motion of said car, a normallyl horizontal pantograph connected at two of its opposite corners to adjacent arms of said vertical pantograph, pivoted arms mounted on said car body and pivotally connected to the other two corners of said horizontal pantograph, automatic means for `elevating ,sa-id arms to raise said trolley-Wheel, and manually controlled means for eiecting a difference in the amount of elevation of said arms.

7, kThe combination of a car body, a trolley-wheel, trolley-supporting mechanism interposed between said wheel and said car body normally .adapted yto elevate and maintain said trolleyewheel in the plane of the center line of said car. a longitudinal shaft extending from said trolley mechanism to one end of the car, means for rotating said shaft in order to eect a positive ldownward movement of .said trolley-wheel, and means for reciprocating Said Shaft in order to displace .said trolley-wheel laterally :trom its normal vertical position.v

8. The combination of a car body, a trolley-wheel, pantograph mechanism interposed betWeen said trolley-wheel and said car body and adapted automatically to raise said wheel in a vertical plane, a shaft extending between said pantograph mechanism and one end of the car, gearing interposed between said shaft and said pantograph mechanism, means for rotating said shaft to effect a positive lowering of said Vtrolley-Wheel, and means for reciprocating said shaft to effect a transverse movement o said trolley-wheel out of its normal vertical plane of movement.

9. The combination of a car body, a trolley-wheel, pantograph mechanism interposed between said trolley-wheel and said car body and adapted automatically to raise said wheel in a vertical plane, a shaft eX- tending between said pantograph mechanism and one end of the car, gearing interposed between said shaft and said pantograph mechanism, means for rotating said shaftv to effect a positive lowering of said trolley-Wheel, means for reciprocating said shaft to effect a transverse movement or' said trolley-wheel out of its normal vertical plane of movement, and means including manually operated mechanism normally disconnected from said shaft.

10. The combination of a car body, a trolley-wheel, pantograph mechanism sup` porting said wheel and supported by said car, mutually co-acting members on either side of said pantograph mechanism for elevating said wheel in a vertical direction by means of said pantograph, said co-acting members normally operating in unison, and means manually controlled from one end ot' said car to etl'ect a diiterence in the amount of movement of said mutually co-acting members in order to effect the transverse movement of said trolley-wheel out of its normal vertical plane of movement.

ll. The combination of a car body, trolleysupporting mechanism normally adapted to elevate a trolley-wheel in a vertical plane, a pair ot members adapted to support said trolley supporting mechanism at either side of its vertical plane oitl movement, a pair of gears connected to said supporting members, and gearing interposed between ysaid two gears and adapted to control the amount of relative rotation of said two main gears.

CARL KASPAR.

Vitnesses:

EMILIE Ross, Lorne T. MANN.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C. 

